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Jennifer Carroll Foy Wants to be Virginia’s First Female Governor

Brooke Nicholson | July 1, 2020

Topics: childcare, coronavirus, coronavirus virginia, covid 19, environmental issues, equal rights, Equal Rights Amendment, ERA, Governor, governor candidate, healthcare, increase minimum wage, Jennifer Carroll Foy, jrotc, junior reserve officers training corps, living wages, local politics, Medicaid, politics, prince william, richmond, stafford, thomas jefferson school of law, tjsl, unemployment virginia, va election, va elections, virginia candidate, Virginia Governor, Virginia Military Institute, Virginia politics, VMI

Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy has been working for change since childhood. Now in her run to become Virginia’s next Governor, she’s fighting for affordable healthcare, living wages, social equity, environmental issues, and more. 

Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy knew she wanted to play a part in social change since high school. Now this candidate for Virginia Governor and chief sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment is ramping up her campaign, despite the challenges this year has brought. Even in the middle of a pandemic, election season doesn’t wait for anything; and although the coronavirus has put a damper on just about everything in life, the run for electing the next Governor is on. 

As delegate for the state’s second district, which includes Prince William and Stafford County, Carroll Foy says she’s running for governor because Virginians can’t wait for change any longer — and describes what it’s like running her campaign during a global pandemic. 

“I keep hearing the same type of stories,” Carroll Foy explains. “A woman has to travel fourteen miles to take her daughter to the local McDonald’s so she can do her homework. They don’t have access to the internet. [Then] I went to Portsmouth, and I shook the hands of men and women who work 40 hours a week and bring home $14,000 a year. So while some people are doing well in Virginia, not everyone is having the same opportunity to reach the middle class and thrive.”

PHOTO: Virginia Democrats Swearing In, via Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy

Carroll Foy started her years in public service when she joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in high school. After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to allow women to attend Virginia Military Institute (VMI), she knew she had to attend. Carroll Foy became one of the first women of color to graduate from the state military school. She then pursued a Master’s degree, and later earned a law degree from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL). She’s been serving her community ever since.

“I have seen the historic inequalities — in our educational system, our healthcare system, our environment, our economy — up close and personal,” Carroll Foy said. “I’ve experienced many of them myself. So as a working mom of two two-year-olds, working two jobs while paying a second mortgage every month [in childcare costs], and struggling with student loan debt, I can identify and understand the everyday challenges that Virginia families face. I live with them, too.”

Since 2017, Carroll Foy has committed her time to service in the Virginia House of Delegates. Along with sponsoring the Equal Rights Amendment, she has fought to expand Medicaid to 400,000 Virginians while helping with the unemployment process. She’s worked to ensure small businesses are tended to, and that kids still have access to school lunches during COVID-19. But unlike other seasons, this election season has proved to be a challenge, and no candidate is untouched by the coronavirus crisis.

PHOTO: Jennifer Carroll Foy

“My challenges I’ve faced thus far, and in this election, have been the same challenges that my companions are facing. In 2020 and 2021, it’s a fact that we’re running during a pandemic, something that none of us have seen in our lifetimes,” she said. “Then we have the civil unrest and racial reckoning happening right now, and [I’m] trying to lead in that area; pass policies that address police reform and criminal justice reform, while also dismantling a lot of systems that need to be up-ended and rooted in equity. One of the things that VMI taught me was to never get distracted about what’s going on. I’ve been able to do that, because I am not running against anyone in this race for Governor — I’m running for the people of Virginia.” 

In her time as a public defender for the state of Virginia, Carroll Foy has fought for and accomplished many acts of service. She recalls one of her proudest achievements during her time as a delegate, and describes the hard fight it took to accomplish. 

“One of my proudest moments [was] passing the Equal Rights Amendment. I remember fishing the idea to other legislators, that we need to make women’s equality the number one issue in Virginia, and I was told no,” Carroll Foy said. “That was a dead issue that no one was talking about. Luckily, there are advocates like Eileen Davis, who helped galvanize the VA Ratify ERA, [an organization] which houses advocates throughout the Commonwealth and the country to energize voters on this issue, such as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. That became one of the top issues on voters’ minds going into the voting booth in 2019.”

PHOTO: Jennifer Carroll Foy

After bringing to light issues of equality for women, Carroll Foy wants to bring internet access to rural Southwest Virginia and help families get out of the lower class. She’s completely focused on her goal, and says she has always been ready to fight for Virginians and their families.

“I am honored to be in a position to change the face of leadership in Virginia,” Carroll Foy said. “I am also focused on ensuring I bring diverse, high paying jobs to every corner of the Commonwealth.”

She plans to fully fund the education system to prepare Virginia’s children with a world-class education. She also plans to expand infrastructure — such as broadband internet access — to every corner of the state to “finally end the digital divide.” 

“As Governor, I will be able to help lead those changes,” Carroll Foy said, “and set the direction for who we are as Virginians and what we stand for.”

Top Photo via Jennifer Carroll Foy

State of Emergency Called Ahead of Unite the Right Anniversary in Charlottesville

RVA Staff | August 8, 2018

Topics: Charlottesville, Governor, Ralph Northam, State of Emergency, Unite the Right, virginia, white supremacists

*This is a developing story. 

Governor Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville ahead of the one year anniversary of Unite the Right. The white supremacist rally held on August 12 last year left one person dead and another 30 wounded when James Field Jr drove his car into a group of counter-protestors. The announcement released earlier this afternoon stated, “These state of emergency declarations will enhance planning and cooperative response efforts that have been in development since March.” According to the statement, the declaration allows various state agencies to perform “actions outside of the scope of normal operations” as a way to make sure resources are available to both local government and residents.

According to CBS 6, the Virginia State Police Superintendent has said that 700 state police will be activated in and around Charlottesville to prevent any incidents over the course of the weekend.

Photo by Landon Shroder

Last August, the city of Charlottesville and the Charlottesville Police Department took a hands-off approach to the event, which ended in street brawls, confrontations, and the eventual vehicular attack against counter-protestors. Charlottesville Police Chief Alfred Thomas resigned last December shortly after the release of a highly critical report that listed serious planning failures.The consultant hired to evaluate planning for the event, former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, found that the city failed to both coordinate and communicate proper instructions in advance of the rally.

The man behind the attack, James Fields, Jr. of Ohio, has been indicted on 30 charges including federal hate crimes, and is awaiting a November trial. Several memorial events have been planned this weekend in Charlottesville. Jason Kessler, the man who organized Unite the Right last August, will be holding another rally in Washington, DC on Sunday. The National Park Service released a list of speakers who will headline the event which included, neo-Nazi Patrick Little, KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, Simon Roche, Kevin Cormier, Avialae Horton, and Corey Mahler.

A map of the security planning for this weekend has been released by Solidarity Cville in a tweet just two hours ago.

They also released a list of instructions indicating what is allowed and isn’t on the downtown mall over the course of the weekend.

A House Contested: The Virginia House of Delegates Explainer

Rich Meagher | December 1, 2017

Topics: Democrats, Elections, Governor, Republicans, virginia, Virginia House of Delegates

The Virginia government elections happened weeks ago, but it ain’t over yet. Here’s some frequently asked question to help explain what happened, and what to expect next.

What’s going on?

Virginia’s weird and arbitrary election schedule puts the election for Governor and some state offices in an “off-off-year.” Since the 2017 election was the first major political contest after Trump’s victory last fall, the entire country was watching to see how it might affect future elections.

Virginia did not disappoint.

Anti-Trump backlash drove voters to the polls, leading to historic gains for the Democrats. The Virginia state legislature will undergo a huge culture change, as a lot of old white dudes were replaced by the legislature’s first out Lesbian, first two Latina women, first Asian-American woman, first Democratic Socialist, and the first openly transgender legislator to be elected in America. (This last legislator, Danica Roem, will likely garner most of the attention from this group, and for good reason: not every state legislator attends the American Music Awards with Demi Lovato, and GOP legislators are being forced to deal with gendered titles and pronouns, probably for the first time in their lives.)

After a number of close races, the election ended with the GOP holding onto a slim majority at 51-49. However, some races are still undecided.

Which races are undecided?

There are three:

  • Incumbent Republican Tim Hugo has a 105-vote lead on Donte Tanner in House District 40.
  • Over in the 94th District, incumbent David Yancey has only a 10-vote (!) lead over Democratic challenger Shelly Simonds.
  • The 28th is the biggest mess. Republican Bob Thomas is ahead of Democrat Joshua Cole by 82 votes, but some voters in the district apparently got the wrong ballot. (Thanks to incredibly stupid election laws, voter precincts don’t always overlap with House districts. See this VPAP overview if you want to understand how this works.)

The state Board of Elections has just certified the results of the last of these elections, so we can move on to the recount/challenge phase.

What’s at stake here?

The outcomes of these three contested elections will determine which party controls one of the houses of Virginia’s bicameral (two-house) legislature. The House of Delegates has 100 members, and it’s been skewed heavily towards the GOP in past years – in 2017, it was 66 to 34 for the Republicans.

Again, the GOP lead is now down to 51 to 49. And, if a single one of the three contested election results are reversed at any point, the house would be evenly divided. That’s happened at least once before in the chamber’s history, and both parties worked out a power-sharing arrangement, with co-Committee Chairs and shared speaker duties.

Over in the Senate, legislators get four-year terms, so their next election isn’t until 2019. But that house also has just a narrow Republican majority, 21-19.

So what can happen to change the GOP majority?

A bunch of things can change the House of Delegates math, actually. There are at least four ways that the Democrats could block the Republicans from controlling the chamber:

1. Recounts

Virginia state law allows losing candidates to request a recount, as long as they lost by less than 1% of the total votes cast. You don’t need a lot of math to realize that all three of the contested races fall within that margin. Still, Hugo and Thomas probably have little to worry about here; it’s unlikely that a recount will turn up enough miscounted or discounted votes to overcome their lead.

Yancey, on the other hand, is SUPER vulnerable. We last saw a recount for the 2013 Attorney General election; there election officials found ~750 more Democratic votes statewide. Based on that math, finding more than 10 new votes for Democrats in a single district is certainly possible. In fact, insiders say Democratic votes are more likely to be found in recounts. (This is probably due to demographics; Democrats are more likely to claim poor, young, and inexperienced voters.)

The 2013 recount took place over two days in mid-December, so we’ll probably know the recount outcomes before the legislative session starts in January.

2. Contest in the house

Our endlessly inventive Virginia election laws also allow losing candidates to contest the election in the General Assembly. It’s not clear if this has ever happened before, so it’s hard to know exactly how this would proceed. But the state code allows for such a challenge to be overseen by the House’s Committee on Privileges and Elections. If the chamber remains Republican-controlled, it’s unlikely the contest will go anywhere. But under a power-sharing arrangement, things could get more interesting.

3. Court challenges

Democrats will most likely look to the courts for the 28th district, where voters were assigned the wrong ballots. Still, only about 80 votes seem to be at question here. Surely not all of them voted Democratic, so it’s unlikely the Democrats could generate enough votes from these folks even if they were allowed to submit new ballots.

The Democrats might instead try to get the original results thrown out and demand a special election. But they would have to find judges willing to interfere with election outcomes, which they are generally reluctant to do. The bottom line: these court challenges are less about the legal arguments made, and more about the politics of the situation. Will any Virginia judges be willing to wade into partisan politics and “overturn” an election? My guess is no, but we’ll see soon.

4. Political appointments

One final method that the Democrats could use: Governor-Elect Ralph Northam has a lot of jobs to fill in his administration. Some Republicans are worried he could try to change the legislature’s math by offering plum spots to Republican Delegates or Senators. At the same time, the Governor has to be careful not to pull a legislator out of a weak Democratic district.

Northam’s transition team may not end up affecting this year’s legislature much. (His predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, only created one special election through appointment, and that wasn’t until August.) But remember that being a state legislator is only a part-time job; administration appointments can be lucrative, as well as allowing significant contributions to public service. Everyone will be eyeing the work of his transition team very closely.

Why do we care?

This is fascinating for political junkies, for sure. But there are real policy consequences stemming from partisan control. For example, Republicans have blocked Medicaid expansion for years; so 400,000 Virginians who could have health insurance should care greatly about which party runs the legislature. Laws covering reproductive rights, gun regulations, and the environment all depend on whether or not they can get through committees.

So there’s a lot at stake. The next few weeks will determine what happens. Stay tuned.

 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans

Photo Essay: Voters of the River City

Landon Shroder | November 8, 2017

Topics: Down Ballot, Elections, Governor, Polling Stations, richmond, RVA, virginia

Tuesday’s election was a landslide victory for Democrats, taking all three statewide seats, along with potentially flipping the Republican-dominated General Assembly blue. In fact, Virginia Democrats have not had such a resounding victory since the late 19th Century. Yet, this victory is even more special given our current political age, one that is driven by fear of the “other,” suspicion of each other, and the kinds of overt racism and bigotry that drove Gillespie’s failed bid as the Commonwealth’s top executive. What yesterday proved to our communities in Virginia, the nation, and even the world is that decency can prevail even in the most tempestuous of political circumstances.

That decency was on full display yesterday throughout Richmond. Our reporting team spent almost 15 hours on the beat at polling stations to take the vibe and atmosphere of what people were feeling throughout the River City. What we found were people committed to their communities and engaging wholeheartedly in their most sacred civic obligations, which (after November 2016) people can no longer take for granted. The range of political interests and policy motivations between communities, locations, and demographics varied, but one thing was clear, rejecting the divisiveness of fear that is trying to drive us apart was a priority for most citizens. In this, Richmond was not unique, as the Commonwealth just elected the nation’s first transgender woman, Danica Roem, the first Asian American delegate, Kathy Tran; the first two female Latinx delegates, Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzman; and the second state-wide African American candidate, Justin Fairfax; along with a tidal wave of victories for first-time women candidates – just to name a few.

Carol Adams Supporter

That was the message that Virginia sent to the rest of the US yesterday, and Richmond has been on the front lines of the statewide debate that ushered in this progressive victory. Here are some of RVA Mag’s most intimate campaign photos from polling places on Tuesday, a day which will be talked about and analyzed for years to come.

Christopher, No Last Names Given.

Quiana McCormick and Her Daughter

Wendy Martin

Carver Polling Station

Lauren Shephard. One Virginia 2021

Irving for Sheriff Supporters. East District Community Center

Vivian Green

Carver Polling Station

Gloria Nash-Allen and Richmond Crusade for Voters

Cowboy. Nicole D. Jackson Supporter

A Family Affair

 

*Words and photos by Landon Shroder. Cover photo of Christian from Ice Cream Support Group.

 

 

Marijuana, Drug Wars, and The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Time to Right a Devastating Wrong in Virginia

Cliff Hyra | November 5, 2017

Topics: Cliff Hyra, election, election 2017, Governor, Libertarian, marijuana reform, school to prison pipeline

In this year’s gubernatorial debates, Confederate monuments came up time and time again. Such a singular focus seems strange, considering that all the candidates in this election have essentially the same position on that issue – leave the decision up to local residents. But because it is a culture war issue, it commands attention. One candidate likes the monuments. Another does not. That tells us which team they are on in the ongoing culture war.

Some people are passionate about Confederate monuments. I understand that. But what a shame that the topic has sucked up so much of the oxygen in the room, leaving little time for issues that much more directly impact the material well-being of Virginians on a daily basis. As a lawyer and a believer in the importance of freedom, choice, and of our constitutional and civil rights, I see criminal justice reform as one of the top priorities in the Commonwealth. However, the topic never came up in any of the debates. Have the monuments been pushed front and center to distract and divide us, to keep us from reaching a bipartisan consensus on urgently needed reforms in other areas?

Virginia’s criminal justice system is unfortunately not very just and has many policies that are a legacy of an explicitly racist past, when state government enforced massive resistance to public school integration and banned interracial marriage. Its burdens weigh especially heavily on lower income Virginians and people of color, but all of us pay dearly — both through a loss of skilled workers and economic dynamism, and direct support of the system and affected families with taxpayer money. Each of us must come to terms with our association with an unjust and devastating system that shames us on a national level.

Virginia’s criminal justice system fails most dramatically where success is most critical — for our children. In a tragedy often referred to as Virginia’s “School-to-prison pipeline,” Virginia refers students to law enforcement agencies at the highest rate in the nation — nearly triple the national average, disproportionately black and disabled children. About half of criminal complaints are for children aged 14 and under. Schools are not required to report the reasons for the referrals, but anecdotal evidence abounds, with charges of “disorderly conduct” for behavior such as kicking a trash can.

The Virginia Department of Corrections reports that we pay over $120,000 per year to keep a child in juvenile detention, even though we utilize large juvenile prisons with severely limited programs for rehabilitation and recidivism reduction. Rehabilitation and reintegration into society should be top priorities for juvenile facilities, because the human and financial cost of losing an entire lifetime to the criminal justice system is astronomical. But our failure in this area is staggering — 75 percent of youths leaving juvenile facilities are reconvicted within three years.

While housed in these facilities, located over 100 miles away from Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia — our highest committing communities — youths pay $5 to $10 per phone call and earn 35 to 50 cents an hour in their institutional work program. Meanwhile, their families are forced to pay child support to the state to support the cost of their commitment.

Community-based alternatives not only exist, but are used successfully in other states, where research has proven their effectiveness. Functional Family Therapy, a structured family‐based intervention that uses a multi‐step approach to enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors for the family; Aggression Replacement Training, which uses repetitive learning techniques to help offenders develop skills to control anger and use more appropriate behaviors; and Multi-Systemic Therapy, which improves families’ capacities to overcome the causes of delinquency by promoting parents’ ability to replace deviant peer relationships with pro‐social friendships; have each been shown to produce net benefits of tens of thousands of dollars per youth. We need to bring those proven programs here to Virginia. Where secure facilities are necessary, they should be small, regionally-based, and focused on growth and rehabilitation under an independent ombudsman’s oversight.

But reform needs to go well beyond our juvenile justice system. Too many Virginians are languishing in prison for victimless crimes like drug use, away from their families and away from any productive work. Virginia spends billions of dollars each year on a criminal justice system that arrests 40,000 Virginians for drug crimes every year, with marijuana arrests accounting for 60 percent of those and mere possession well over 80 percent. The direct cost to incarcerate one person is about $30,000 per year, not to mention the loss of their productivity to the economy and the loss of their tax dollars, the fracturing of their family, and all the negative economic consequences for their families and for their futures.

Drug arrests disproportionately affect African American communities, even though research indicates drug use is no more prevalent there, and contribute substantially to the gaps we see between those communities and others in terms of educational outcomes and economic performance.

The number of drug arrests in Virginia has skyrocketed over the last 10-15 years, almost doubling — even though rates of violent crime and property crime are dropping, and even though rates of drug arrests are also falling rapidly in other parts of the country. The Commonwealth has ordered a study into marijuana decriminalization, but do we really need a study? 29 states and the District of Columbia already have legalized marijuana. We know that it works.

When marijuana is legalized, opioid deaths plummet and tax revenues soar. Surveys show that more than 85 percent of Virginians support some form of legal marijuana, and over 60 percent support full legalization. But because we have no ballot referendums here in Virginia, we are still waiting for action from a governor who cares about what the people of Virginia want. We don’t need a study, we need to stop wasting taxpayer money incarcerating productive citizens, separating them from their families and subjecting them to abuse, and depriving them of their ability to obtain stable and high paying jobs in the future. We need to legalize marijuana now.

Although legalization requires cooperation of the legislature, the governor has the power to grant an absolute pardon to any Virginian who is in jail only for drug use, after completion of a treatment or anti-recidivism program (if deemed necessary), so they can return to their families, expunge their records, and get a good, stable job. And until marijuana is formally legalized, the governor can order law enforcement to give laws against drug use the lowest possible enforcement priority. That would allow us to dramatically cut the $3 Billion spent on the justice system each year and increase tax revenues while strengthening families and improving relationships between police and the communities they serve.

Numerous other abusive criminal justice practices in Virginia should also be curbed. For example, arrest quotas should be made explicitly illegal, so that police officer promotion or awards cannot be predicated on making a certain number of arrests. The abusive suspension of driver’s licenses for failure to pay trivial fines and for minor drug offenses should end, to help keep at-risk Virginians employed.

Civil asset forfeiture abuse, also known as “policing for profit,” is a common practice in Virginia whereby police can seize private property based merely on a suspicion that the property was related to criminal activity, without any criminal charge or conviction. Victims are forced to sue the police department to get their property back, a costly, time-consuming, and, for most victims, impractical process. A criminal charge should be required before property can be seized, proceeds should be sent to the general fund and not directly to the police, and property should be returned to the owner when a criminal conviction is not obtained.

In Virginia, judges with little knowledge of the lives of the accused set bail levels at their own discretion and without relying on statistical evidence. Experiments with bail reform in other states have shown equal or better results in defendants showing up for trial, with much lower costs to the accused – many fewer poor people forced to stay in jail, sometimes for a year or more, just because they can’t afford bail.

The felony larceny threshold should be increased from $200 (the lowest in the nation) to the national average of $1,000 or more. Studies show that low thresholds waste valuable resources without any benefit in crime reduction.

Parole for non-violent offenders encourages rehabilitation and good behavior and reduces recidivism, and should be reinstated in Virginia. Restoration of voting rights should be made automatic after all sentences and probation are served, as in almost all other states. Trial by ambush should be ended, by requiring prosecutors to turn over police reports and other evidence to the defense before a trial. And, Virginia should implement the recommendations of the 2015 Governor’s Commission on criminal justice reform for improving our prison system, which could save Virginia $500 Million each year while improving effectiveness.

All of these reforms are badly needed and would save the Commonwealth billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs while allowing law enforcement to focus on serious crimes. They would also rehabilitate our reputation and make our state fairer and more just for all its citizens. Shouldn’t the Governor make these reforms a priority? Only one candidate has made them a priority on the campaign trail — that’s me.

 

*Photos by Landon Shroder

 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans

 

Opinion: The Reason Why Gun Control Won’t Work in Virginia

Matthew S. Sporn | October 12, 2017

Topics: Governor, gun control, las vegas shooting, RVA, socio-economic analysis, virginia

The Las Vegas mass casualty attack – one of the deadliest in modern US history – has brought gun control to the forefront of Virginia’s gubernatorial race. Democratic nominee Ralph Northam has pushed for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, while at the same time reinstating a former law limiting handgun purchases to one per month. Many gun control bills have been introduced in recent General Assembly sessions, but the Republican-controlled legislature consistently blocks efforts to add new restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.

Perhaps it’s counterintuitive to say this, but for Virginia (and the country) gun control responses to mass casualty attacks are not true solutions. Gun regulation won’t solve a problem dependent on social and economic factors. Gun control only treats the symptoms, not the cause.

You see, in most cases violence is a symptom of poverty. When you are poor, your opportunities to escape poverty are exceptionally limited. Richmond’s poverty rate among children is the second-highest in Virginia, and as recently as 2015, one in four Richmond residents lived in poverty.

When poverty-stricken citizens need to pay rent, or feed their family, or just find the basic necessities, and there is nowhere else to turn, they turn to crime, and that can mean violence. Meaning stricter regulations for guns won’t resolve the underlying reasons behind many of the shootings in Virginia,  Richmond, or even the rest of the country.

So is gun control where we should focus our energy or should it just be more thoughts and prayers? Neither, I think they’re both equally ridiculous.

Bear with me for a second.  

The typical form of gun control means writing more criminal laws, therefore creating more criminals and more reasons for police to suspect people of crimes. More than that, it means creating yet more pretexts for the continued militarization of police. Searching for guns can easily become a stand-in for some general prediction of risk, danger, or lawlessness. In other words, police would use selective enforcement, where enforcement includes obtrusive searches based on existing prejudices about who is and isn’t dangerous (think stop and frisk).

This is a problem, because the police already operate with barely constrained force in poor, minority neighborhoods ( hello Ferguson, Missouri). From police using military equipment in non-tactical situations,(hello Standing Rock), to stop-and-frisk, to mass incarceration, to parole monitoring; the police operate a cache of programs that subject these populations to several layers of coercion. As a consequence, more than seven million Americans are subject to some form of correctional control, an extremely disproportionate number of whom are from poor and minority communities. Following in stride with national trends, Virginia has an increasingly terrible record.

People of color, particularly African Americans, are overrepresented at each stage of the Virginia criminal justice system. The Justice Policy Institute recently put out a report on the Commonwealth’s correctional systems highlighting this very thing. In Virginia, African Americans comprise roughly 20 percent of the adult population. In the justice system, however, they comprise: 47.4 percent of all arrests 76.2 percent of robbery arrests, 52.2 percent of aggravated assault arrests 60.8 percent of state prison inmates – for every white person incarcerated in Virginia, six African Americans remain behind bars.

As a result, a yawning gap exists between the justification for gun control and its most likely effect. Based on history alone, there is no reason to expect fair enforcement of gun control laws. Why? Because how our society is policed depends not on the laws themselves, but on how the police – and the criminal justice system – decide to enforce those laws against their citizenry. Once more, think stop and frisk. And given that there are around 300 million guns in the US, any attempts at enforcing gun laws will be selective. That is to say, they will be unfairly enforced against poor and minority communities.  

For example, once individuals find themselves arrested, “gun control” typically appears as a reason for increasing punishment – enhancing sentences for other crimes in the process. Gun charges are also a part of the excessive and racially unequal over-charging practices that not only contribute to rising incarceration rates, but also forces individuals away from trial and into plea bargains – forcing them to accept what is still a significant period of incarceration without a trial, rather than risk disproportionately lengthy sentences for relatively minor offenses.

As the Washington Post reported in 2014, “47.3 percent of those convicted for federal gun crimes were black — a racial disparity larger than any other class of federal crimes, including drug crimes.” Indeed, for most communities of color, being the ”good guys with guns” can actually cause more harm than good. Look no further than Philando Castile, a gun owner who was killed by the Minnesota police, as an example.

In Virginia and throughout the US, we should focus on the structural inequalities and material conditions that are at the root of these problems, instead of solely focusing on guns. Research shows that areas of the country experiencing the highest incidents of gun homicide are marked by intense poverty, low levels of education, and racial segregation. Again, violence is a symptom of poverty – it is time to treat the symptom.

We can approach shootings as a criminal justice problem or as a public health and social welfare problem; that’s what is missing in the discussion after any mass shooting attack. Social inequality and income inequality are to a large extent fueling the gun violence in the country. Even Richmond is trying to combat its gun violence with a new targeted ad campaign, which is novel but still misses the point. If the city wants residents to respect Richmond? Maybe the residents need to be respected by the city first.

 

*Photos by Landon Shroder

 

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